The Mysterious Case of Joe Peck
by The Scratch Man
Summary: Sometimes Joe is a mystery wrapped in an enigma tucked inside a burrito; other times, he's a grouchy thirty year old with a gruff attitude and a toothpick perpetually stuck between his teeth. Wait, no –he's always like that.


Sometimes Joe is a mystery wrapped in an enigma tucked inside a burrito; other times, he's a grouchy thirty year old with a gruff attitude and a toothpick perpetually stuck between his teeth. Wait, no –he's always like that.

Finn's grin widens when he sees Joe standing in the lobby. For all of Joe's talk, he's a prude at heart (okay, so maybe it is a little strange for Finn to be exposing himself to the entire building), and when he sees Finn, his eyes widen in horror and he starts backing away, _fast_.

"What the hell?" he says shakily, still retreating from Finn, "Where're your _clothes_, man?"

They make it outside without too much trouble, except that Joe is avoiding a well-deserved hug of gratitude, and it kind of hurts.

Joe doesn't let Finn sit inside the Beast until he's put on a pair of jeans that are stowed under the passenger seat with a bag of Finn's old clothes that he vaguely remembers leaving at Joe's place over the years.

"Yeah, man!" Finn shouts, slapping the Beast's dashboard as Joe starts the engine, "We're _back_,"

"Put on your seatbelt," Joe grumbles. "Tobey and Benny are cutting through the city –we'll take the freeway to get a head start. Jesus, man, put a shirt on,"

"You like me like this," Finn insists, but he digs through the bag for a t-shirt anyway.

He finds a navy button-down in the bag, too, and doesn't mention that it's not his, just puts it on. "We going or what?" he says, nodding toward the road.

At this moment, Joe chooses to be a burrito of riddles, and he stares at Finn with an unreadable expression as he chews on his ever-present toothpick, "Yeah," he says, and pulls the Beast off the side of the road.

Joe is a silent driver, always has been. It's Finn's God-given duty to talk his ear off, and he does, complaining loudly about his office job and updating Joe on his days since the last time Joe called to check in on three days earlier.

"It's good to see you, man," Joe says when Finn draws a breath, "Though I thought I wouldn't have to see your ugly mug until Christmas,"

"Shut up, you love this face," Finn says dismissively.

Joe mutters his denial, frowning at the road, because besides being inexplicably addicted to chewing on toothpicks, Joe is also deep on his journey along a great river known as _Denial_ (Finn's an expert; he's Egyptian-American).Well, Finn's pretty sure that's what's happening, because he drops enough fucking hints, so Joe _has_ to be ignoring Finn's clues on purpose.

He's kissed Joe –_twice_ –and sure, both of them were chaste mistletoe kisses from two years ago, but Finn's not just gonna kiss someone _twice_ (especially not his _best friend_) if he doesn't have some hopes of future boning occurring. And yeah, Finn would've been trying harder to get in Joe's pants except he'd only recently decided for sure he actually wanted Joe, and the timing had been awful.

It's going to be put right, now, though; they're going to bring Dino down and Tobey's going to win the goddamn De Leon. He has to.

"Look," Joe says suddenly.

The communication screen in the Beast lights up as the Monarch begins a new panel. Benny has apparently uploaded the aerial recording of Tobey's police chase and has sent it to the Monarch's site.

The announcement is made: Tobey's the last racer to join the De Leon.

Finn and Joe both let out triumphant whoops.

"We're in, brother!" Joe says, grinning.

He looks good when he isn't frowning, but Finn will admit that he doesn't mind the brooding, either. Joe grinning makes him look like a completely different person, but somehow he's still just Joe Peck.

They pound fists and Finn revels in the sparkle in Joe's eyes. When he's not busy being an enigmatic Mexican wrap (and okay, Finn needs to give up on this metaphor), Joe lets his emotions play across his face clear as an HD movie.

Finn likes to think he's a pretty straightforward guy, too, but he can't deny he's got things he lies about.

"Shit," Finn says, "He's racing in the De Leon –for real. It's finally happening,"

"Hell yeah, man," Joe says happily.

Finn sits back contently and listens to the sound of the wind passing by outside of the car and feels the way the Beast's engine thrums under the seats. The last time he was on a long-distance ride with Joe was almost two years ago, when he'd found his job in Detroit and had forced Joe to drive him into the city and help him move into his new place.

The trees along the highway pass in a blur of green and brown and Finn looks away from the window back to Joe, who's staring ahead, one hand resting lazily on the top of the steering wheel.

They go on quietly for a while and then they check in with Benny and Tobey.

They speed up to drive beside the Mustang and Joe smirks at Finn and his next words almost give Finn a heart attack because Joe doesn't _flirt_. He barely knows _how_; Finn's seen him with girls –he just talks to them like he would the rest of the crew.

Finn doesn't have time to be shocked, though, and he's got a job to do, so he just grins wide and says, "Oh, you _were_ checking me out!"

The Mustang speeds off after the refueling and the Beast takes the exit ramp, Finn stretches his arms out and feels the wind rushing through his clothes and hair. Something like excitement builds suddenly in his chest, and he just feels so _free_ and so he yells out into the air, because it feels like the right thing to do.

When Finn finally climbs back into the Beast, Joe's driving them into a town to refuel. He glances at Finn and smiles knowingly as Finn settles back into his seat, like he could hear Finn screaming his lungs hoarse outside –well, he probably could.

"You remember when you first moved to Mount Kisco?" Joe says suddenly while they're at the gas station, filling up the Beast's tank.

Finn startles a little. "Yeah man," he says. Of course he remembers; he'd been the new kid on the first day of sixth grade and he'd made friends with Benny in first period. At lunch, he'd been introduced to Tobey and Joe, who at that time, had been chewing on the end of a pencil. The rest of the crew had all been in seventh grade at the time. "I met all your dumb asses on the first day of school,"

"You couldn't tell one car from another,"

"I was _eleven_," Finn protests, "And I caught on quick enough, man,"

"Yeah," Joe says, sounding fond, "Yeah you did,"

He doesn't say anything else, so Finn asks, "Is there a reason you're choosing to take a trip down memory lane right now?"

Joe switches the toothpick in his mouth to the other corner, "Nah, brother," he says, "Just thinking,"

Finn shakes his head, "Whatever. Look, the tank's full, we'd better head out." They've got a schedule to keep on top of.

Joe nods and they pile back into the Beast and then they're off.

The thing about Joe is that when he's talking even when he's not. Finn knows the way he fidgets, because Joe practically speaks through body language sometimes. That's just them, though; to others, it sometimes appears that Finn is the mouth piece to their little duo, but that's not true. Joe, of course, can speak verbally on his own –quite articulately, too –but even when he's quiet, his stares and posture and the way he's chewing on his fucking toothpick speak his thoughts to Finn.

Right now, something's on Joe's mind, and it _has_ to be more than casual reflections on the past because Joe is chewing on his toothpick _hard_, and the line of his shoulders is tense. The crease between his eyebrows is a little deeper than usual, too.

Joe saves Finn from having to ask what's wrong when he asks, "You know what you're gonna do after this is all over, Finn?"

"Nah," He's not going back to his old job, that's for sure. "If Tobey wins the De Leon, we'll reopen Marshall Motors," he says. It's not even a question, because he knows that's what they'll do.

Joe smiles a little and doesn't say anything.

Finn's ready to rip his hair out because something's going _on_ in that burrito brain of Joe's and Finn doesn't know what and it's _killing_ him –slowly, and painfully. On the outside, he just continues to maintain a neutral expression.

Later, when it's night and Finn's with Julia in the hospital in San Francisco, he waits outside the room even though Julia is awake because Finn's never liked to see people who have been in a car crash.

When he sees the worry in Tobey's eyes as he approaches, it kills him a little inside, and he wonders what he would do if Joe was in Julia's place. Lose his mind, probably. He hugs Tobey perhaps a little harder than necessary, but Tobey doesn't seem to mind.

When Tobey leaves, Finn stays with Julia, sitting in the room as she sleeps.

Joe and Tobey are fixing up Dino's stolen car, and the De Leon is the next morning. Everything's coming to a rapid conclusion, and all that awaits is the final outcome of their efforts.

In the morning, Finn meets Joe in the lobby of the hospital and they hijack a TV screen in one of the waiting areas to watch the De Leon broadcast.

Joe is chewing on a toothpick faster than usual, which is the only sign he gives of his nervousness, but Finn barely slept, and he's jumpy with cafeteria coffee.

"Jesus, Finn, stop moving," Joe complains. "If you're going to act like a hyperactive child, I'm going to hold your fucking hand," he warns.

"I'll hold _your _hand," Finn says petulantly.

Joe levels him with one of his unreadable _looks_ that has Finn breaking eye contact first, but just as Finn is looking away, Joe reaches out and snags his hand.

Joe's hand is dry and his fingertips are slightly cold for no reason.

"_Dude_," Finn pretends to complain.

Joe interrupts, saying, "I'm not blind, alright?"

Finn spends too long in stunned silence, trying to decipher his meaning, and Joe turns his attention back to the De Leon broadcast just as Tobey arrives on the scene and the race is about to begin.

Joe is holding Finn's hand. He's holding it and Finn's got the De Leon to concentrate on, goddammit!

"_Joe_," he says, pulling his hand out of Joe's grasp.

Joe looks momentarily bewildered and then that damn _look_ is back. He shrugs and turns back to the race and it's momentarily forgotten in all of the excitement.

When Dino's car flips, Finn feels a surge of joy –not at Dino's mishap, but because of the other implications. It becomes real when the Monarch announces that Tobey Marshall is the soon to be winner of the De Leon.

Finn gives a shout at the same time as Joe and they turn to each other, jumping in excitement and then they're hugging and Joe's arms are wrapped tight around Finn's waist.

Ten minutes later, Tobey is under arrest and Finn and Joe are still celebrating his victory.

"Little Pete would be over the moon, brother," Joe says, grinning. He's lost his toothpick somehow.

"Yeah, well, he saw it coming, didn't he?" Finn says. Petey would be crowing over Tobey's win for days on end if he were here.

There's a sobering moment between them as their thoughts both turn to Little Pete, and Finn says finally, "We should go check on Julia. She was probably watching the race, too, but just in case, we should let her now what happened."

Joe nods. "Right," he says.

Finn clears his throat and turns to make his exit, already mentally berating himself for failing to seize a moment –because there _had_ been a moment –and what had Joe meant earlier, saying he wasn't blind?

A hand wraps around Finn's arm, stopping him from leaving and when he turns, he has a split second to register Joe coming toward him before his mouth, open with surprise, is covered by Joe's.

It takes him a moment to register that Joe is _kissing_ him –actually _kissing_ him –Joe, who has never given any inclination of liking men (although, true, neither has Finn) is kissing him, open mouthed and with tongue and it's _dirty_—

Finn doesn't let shock immobilize him for long, and he cups Joe's face and kisses back fiercely.

When they break apart, Finn knows he's probably got a little bit of beard burn, and they're both breathless. For a moment, all Finn can think is that he's fucking glad Joe isn't that much taller than him, because it would be a pain if he had to strain to reach every time in the future.

"Just so you know," Joe says, smirking a little, "I _was_ checking you out."


End file.
